Recall petitions not posted online due to privacy issues at moment

MILWAUKEE- Elections officials say they are not posting recall petitions online for now.

They're worried about privacy issues after concerns were raised by people who signed the recall petitions but were victims of domestic abuse or stalking. Recall petitions in the past have always been public records.

Democrats say they turned in one million signatures to recall Governor Walker. We've watched as the Government Accountability Board or GAB scanned all those petitions with the initial promise of posting them on the internet.

MIAD student Isiah Hargrove signed the Walker recall petition and he told TODAY'S TMJ4 he believed that his signature wouldn't be posted.

The GAB is also under court order to create a database for all the Walker recall signatures. If it's made public, it will allow anyone to type in a name and see if it's on the list.

But former state Supreme Court Justice Janine Geske and Marquette University law professor says it's going to be a balancing act of transparency versus privacy for the GAB. She believes the names are public record.

I don't think the law requires them to put it on the Internet at all," said Geske. "I suspect ultimately they are going to be made public. The question is, will they be put on the Internet where everybody can see them."

The state Republican Party insists it's only fair the names should be posted. The ACLU says it would explore fighting any effort by the GAB to create a public search engine to look up signatures.

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